We worked until 2:30am Wednesday morning and I finally headed out at 3:15am, drove until about 6:20 and made it home a little after 4

m, just in time to shower and make it to my night job. Rob had some setbacks that morning, I waited for him at the shop for almost two hours Tuesday morning. By 2:30 he said he was too tired to continue.
Unfortunately, I couldn't wait another day and the truck is tuned horribly. Our first run had a horrible smell and no power. The back three valve covers were leaking significantly. The head studs were sticking up too high so he had to put the studs in further down and retorque. I made adjustments to the transmission with my PCS while we drove. After I solved a boost leak the truck made a best run of just over 42 psi and 1,300 degrees. The truck still felt very slow, didn't have the pep it used to. No smoke whatsoever.
The tuning went downhill from there. We got only a tiny puff of smoke but EGTs got well over 1,500 and boost dropped to barely 32 psi. I hadn't watched everything he did to modify the AFC so I'm not sure I want to make a whole lot of adjustments myself. After several runs and a lot of scratching our heads and getting frustrated, he figured out that he would have to get further into it to make the right adjustments. I'm hoping I can find time to get all the way down there in the near future.
I topped off in Laramie and getting Evanston I'd burned almost 2/3 of a 44 gallon tank. I must be getting about 10 mpg, the worst fuel economy I've ever gotten, especially empty on the interstate. Once I got to Evanston at 7,000' I now have even less boost, about 29 psi, and EGTs climb even quicker. Smoke is now absurd and spoolup is much slower. I can actually hear the engine bog down as the black smoke rolls out.
The engine sounds entirely different. Once we got the truck running, we heard a very loud, low pitch thumping sound coming from the passenger side of the engine. Rob said he'd never heard that before but figured it is just the way it turned out from the massive porting he did. It sounds like a huge air compressor, or maybe like a cross between a Harley Davidson and a helicopter. Very different. At an idle, the turbo is pulling way harder, can really feel it barehanded.
He'd forgotten the new manifold would move the intake elbow back so he had to build a new custom one. He welded some bungs on the backside. The weld at the peak of the bend ended up coming to a very sharp angle that looks oddly sharp instead of a smooth curved arc. He offered to make a better looking one which I think would be a good idea as it doesn't accurately represent his quality fabricating skills. He built this one in a hurry, it works.
Initial throttle response is greatly improved, at least from off the bottom end. I'm sure that once the engine is tuned it will be far more responsive. I'm just surprised by how badly it is running right now. I'm going to have to click back the star wheel and slide the plate back just to clean it up and try to drop EGTs. I was really surprised by how little smoke we saw in Colorado turned into so much in Wyoming.
When we were looking again at my old head we found a very large crack down one of the valve guides that had previously gone unnoticed. I'll try to post a pic of where the white line where the coolant was leaking made it stand out. Also found out my DDP injectors have the better sac style nozzles. He had them pop tested and raised the bar on a couple. And my intake and exhaust valve springs which I thought were 60 lb, turned out to be 140 lb racing springs. We also discovered my new lift pump is leaking, my 3rd or 4th in only 2 years. Probably time for a FASS. There is also a loud ticking noise from the front of my engine that is probably the geartrain. Not sure if a Fluidamper will eliminate that or not.
Another concern I now have is that there is a very noticeable amount of fresh oil on my driveway. Will be a few days before I have time during the day to try to locate the source but the valve covers looked dry at a glance. Ultimately, the project really didn't get finished and needs quite a bit more attention. I'll try to get more pics posted and inform if any tuning makes improvements. He mentioned a smoke screw and I'm not sure what he was referring to, perhaps the star wheel? Anybody know of another smoke screw in the AFC or on a P-pump?